Report: Val Demings Raises $1M Just After Announcing Bid to Challenge Marco Rubio with $4M

Rep Val Demings, D-FL, speaks during the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commer
MANDEL NGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) reportedly raised $1 million just after announcing her bid to challenge Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in the 2022 mid-term election, the Hill reported the number “according to a person familiar with the campaign’s fundraising.”

Rubio has nearly $4 million on hand.

Demings officially announced her Senate campaign on June 9 in which she said, “I know how to get through tough times, and I think we would all agree that we’re in some really tough, unusual times right now,” Demings said. “But I’m not afraid of a tough fight.”

Rubio has previously attacked Demings, explaining, “None of them [Demings and other Democrats] will admit to being a socialist. She probably won’t. But she certainly has voted for socialist things.”

“How can you vote with ‘the Squad’ 94% of the time and argue that you’re not an honorary member of that group? How can you vote with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time and argue that you’re not a far-left, liberal extremist?” Rubio continued. “So she’ll have to answer to that, or whoever their candidate is will have to answer to what their voting record is.”

The campaign heats up as a Democrat report indicated party panic over far-left initiatives that Republicans exposed as inconsistent with working class and Latino voters’ values in the 2020 election cycle.

The report states, “The socialism attack… hurt campaigns in states and districts with immigrant populations that fled socialist governments, including among Venezuelan, Cuban, Vietnamese, and Filipino voters.”

The report appears to be honest, as south Florida, for instance, was largely flipped Republican in the 2020 House races due to concerns over socialism.

Rubio said in a tweeted video Wednesday after Demings’ announcement that “while Congresswoman Demings was on TV calling plans to defund the police ‘thoughtful’ and describing a violent riot as ‘a beautiful sight,’ I was writing and passing the VA Accountability Act to help our veterans.”

Rubio continued to hammer Demings radical track record, “She supported efforts to defund the police, opposed tax relief for working families, and led the effort to put Washington in charge of Florida’s elections. Florida deserves a Senator with a proven track record of fighting, and winning, for Florida families.”

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.